Benefits of School Buses

In a recent survey among members of the American Association of School Administrators, 29.2 percent of respondents said they cut bus transportation routes and availability last year, while more than 37 percent are considering similar cuts for next year. Although more school administrators are reducing or eliminating bus service in order to balance budgets, exactly how those cuts would affect their community deserves a closer look. Studies indicate the significant toll that removing bus service could have on students, families, and communities in terms of attendance, traffic, pollution, and convenience.

For many students, the school bus is the only available method of transportation to and from school.

Students without access to a school bus have a much harder time getting to school on time, every day.

School buses improve traffic conditions.

When you consider that each school bus takes about 36 cars off the road, the effect they have on congestion becomes very clear. Multiply 36 cars by an average of 9,600 school buses per state and that's a lot of extra traffic added to the morning commute. And for those who are calculating the carbon footprint effect, that's a C02 emissions equivalent of 32,473 trips between Los Angeles and New York on a Boeing 747 per state per year.*

School buses are much safer than passenger vehicles.

Students are about 50 times more likely to arrive at school alive if they take the bus than if they drive themselves or ride with friends-more than 20 times safer than if they ride with a parent or other adult. Simply put, school buses are built to reduce rider fatalities and injuries in a crash. So for most parents, the budget dollars saved by cutting school bus service are done so at the expense of their children's safety-obviously not a sacrifice that any parent should have to make.